Stone saw the woman and the look in her eyes. she need to talk to him but not here. he indicated up stairs with his eyes. she nodded her understanding. After a few minutes Stone slipped away and met the mysterious woman up stairs

Litttle Jewel hurriedly closed the door and went to the entrance in this room to the mansion's interconnecting secret passages. What sharp eyes he had! And a sharp mind, too, to suggest they leave a second floor that was getting as crowded as the first had been, and meet upstairs. Surely this man of mystery was the one to help her out of this terrible mess.

Meanwhile, West suddenly struck the vial from Mercier's hand. It spun across the room and exploded upon impact with a large potted shrub.

"I thought that reaction looked familiar," he commented. "Artie scared the horses pretty badly one time when he got that kind of smoke and barely managed to toss the beaker he was working with against the front wall of his lab before it blew up. He complained for week about the smell of the stables interfering with his experiments, before I finally hired a carpenter to fix the hole just to shut him up."

"But Mr. West," Mercier protested, "there should have been no reason for those chemicals to react in that manner."

"Unless it was a planned trap," West pointed out. "I'm assuming any chemist who could concoct that that drug could design it so that the most logical tests to perform on it would cause it to explode?"

"It would be possible, but I don't like to theorize on the after-effects the additions might have on anyone who fell victim to the drug." Mercier paused. "For whom do you suspect the trap was laid?" he asked. "Just any chemist, or perhaps specifically for your partner, Mr. Gordon?"

"Well, you yourself said he was a brilliant chemist, Mr. West..." Suddenly, Roderick realized what he was saying. "Oh, uh, I mean, maybe he came up with the substance, and--and Finch stole it, somehow..."

Jim gazed at Roderick with a look that made the British agent shrink a couple inches. "If that was the case, then Artemus certainly was quick to leave me with the substance, now wasn't he?"

Roderick swallowed, not daring to agree.

Jim glanced over at the smoking plant, letting out a long sigh. "Whoever's behind this has to be devious enough to have gotten into a party full of Secret Agents--which is fairly unlikely unless he or she is one; intelligent enough to concoct a powder that would explode when tested; and blood-thirsty enough to have killed one man tonight, and tried to kill another when suspicion arose." He looked pointedly at Roderick. "And Artie isn't one to kill without good reason--namely, his own life at stake."

The British agent bit his lip. "So...maybe it's Finch, then?" Roderick asked tentatively. "Maybe he died because someone thought you would suspect him of wrongdoing."

"I don't know if I would have suspected him--I wasn't closely associated with Finch. The only reason I knew he wasn't a chemist was because Artemus told me."

Roderick's eyebrows rose. "Did Mr. Gordon work with him?"

"Briefly--he practically ordered Washington to get him a new lab partner at the Secret Service Department when Finch blew up the west end of the building."

"Mr. Gordon must've been pretty brave to come to this party tonight, if he knew Finch was on the guest list." Roderick smiled. "So what did I miss, Mr. West? I mean, before I got here."

Jim's hesitation was clear to Roderick. "Well, a bit, actually.

"First, a woman in red; Mr. Stone and Ms. Silver both seem to know something about her, but won't say just what.

"Second: the person who was arguing with Finch, just before he was murdered; we haven't decided if it was man or woman.

"Third: the safety pin. Now, my initial theory was that it was not to be used as a needlepoint to administer the drug, but as a way to get into places."

"How did you get my blood on you?" Stone couldn't understand what the young woman was saying.

"I was there when you got hit, remember? You saved me from the bullet, you wonderful, brave man." She stood on tiptoe and tugged at his shoulders, and when he bent down to her, she kissed his cheek firmly. "Thank you."

Jim and Roderick began an orderly search of the ground floor. Jim looked into a well-furnished music room, then began to withdraw quietly. He realized just exactly what it was he'd seen, and cleared his throat. "Artemus," he called.

There was a moment of silence, and then an exasperated sigh. "What, James?" came the reply from the music room.

"If you can get your lips off Miss Silver's, we do have a murder to solve."

"Just administering a little therapuetic..."

"I know. I saw. Now come on and give us a hand, will you?"

Jim heard a soft footfall approach from behind, and glanced quickly over his shoulder to see Roderick.

"Jim, did you say Miss Silver is in there with Artemus?"

"I'm afraid so," Jim admitted.

"You're just jealous because nobody's kissed you tonight," Artie's voice came from within.

"Jim, remember what I was saying about that drug. Maybe he should keep an eye on her, to be sure there are no further ill effects."

Artie immediately appeared in the doorway, pulling Agent Silver along by the hand. "What do you mean, 'further ill effects'?" he demanded.

"Well, in case you didn't hear that little explosion earlier," Jim explained, "We've discovered that the knock-out drug that was evidently on that safety pin may have been tampered with to make it explode, like that stuff you used to add an extra window from your lab to the stables."

"Oh." Artie looked worried as he turned to Silver. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked her.

"Well, a little dizzy, maybe, but I don't think it has anything to do with that drug."

Artie smirked at Jim.

"Don't think I'm going to let a little thing like this sideline me, gentlemen," Silver insisted. "I'm in this investigation until we solve it."

"Maybe you'd better stick with me, though," Artie suggested. "Just so I can keep an eye on you."

"Somehow," commented Roderick, "I don't get the impression the lady will mind that very much."

"Yeah, I can see what you mean," Jim responded, shaking his head as his partner and the lady agent both grinned.

Just then the four of them heard an angry shout from above.

"Lexi!" exclaimed Roderick. "And she sounds like someone is either in trouble or about to be." He sprinted for the stairs, with Jim, Artie and Silver close behind him.